At home, privacy is essential. We want to feel safe at all times. However, not all fences are equal. Plus, fences can spoil the untainted view of nature. Fortunately, plants create many beautiful living barriers. They are also ideally suited to accentuate your home’s existing privacy features.

Even if you don’t own a home or a fence, plants can still meet your privacy needs. From vertical garden screens of ivy to windowsill herb gardens, here are three ideas for using privacy plants fences. 

Privacy Plant Fences Ideas

Trees and Shrubs

When thinking of living privacy fences, rows of trees and shrubs are the typical starting points. They are long-lived and capable of growing taller than most fences. These living barriers help reduce sound, wind, and inclement weather on the property. Also, as they continue to grow, they only become stronger. That’s the reason you should think about privacy plant fences.

When planting anything, be sure to plant options that grow in your hardiness zone. Consider matching your privacy trees to the native species that grow around you. This helps your property better blend into the surroundings. It will also help give back to the local environment. 

Like the Concolor Fir and Eastern White Pine, Evergreen trees provide year-round coverage. Their large canopies and heights topping 50 feet ensure privacy, but the clearance between the ground and the bottom branches lacks proper security.

Other options, like Laurels and Magnolias, grow closer to the ground. This leaves them easier to prune and manage, making them ideal for complete privacy.

Shrubs and hedges are other options for fences. Though they don’t grow as tall as trees, they have more versatility for fencing. For example:

• Shrubs reach their mature height much faster than trees.
• Many varieties provide extra benefits, such as pleasing scents and beautiful blooms.
• They work great as both high and low-maintenance plants.
• They can easily fill gaps in the fencing.
• Shrubs make great inter-yard dividers.

When planting trees or shrubs, leave adequate space for growth. Overcrowding can stunt or kill plants. It can even lead to spreading plant diseases and funguses that affect your entire yard. 

Living fences that use trees and shrubs need patience and years of care, but they create generational privacy that can boost the value of your home, and the safety of your family.

Vertical Gardening Ideas

Despite the privacy of tree and shrub-based barriers, they take a while to grow. While you wait, or even alternatively, consider vertical gardening elements. There are many styles of vertical gardening that create barriers, privacy screens, or even scenic decoration. As well, they are entirely customizable to your wishes and style.

Trellises and arches are standard garden features, but they also make excellent privacy screens. With creeping or trained plants, trellises can become living walls and barriers. Practical at any location of the yard, these often feature accentuating plants and flowers for a majestic result.

Some more creative elements include hanging baskets, grow cabinets, and tower gardens. Additionally, many grow fruit and vegetables for you to use. These features create modular and accentuating additions, while still ensuring privacy. For example:

• Hanging baskets from a dining area pavilion helps obscure outside eyes from peering in.
• Vertical garden stands and cabinets on rollers provide modular screens throughout the yard.
• Shorter towers and walls are safe for balcony use or smaller yard applications.

Wall gardens provide similar results with a different execution. Often using a trellis, these gardens use vertical planters or even growing frames to create an actual living wall. They make wonderful accentuating pieces. Plus, they help obscure drab security fencing from your view, leaving you with a lush barrier of plants, flowers, and produce.

Vertical growing elements provide quick solutions to maximize the privacy of your yard. You’ll enjoy all the added flowers and produce harvested from your vertical gardens! Isn’t that bad to apply privacy plant fences, isn’t it?

Low Space Options for Renters

Even if you don’t own your home, your privacy is still important. From balcony gardens to potted solutions, plenty of privacy plant fences excel in smaller spaces. 

If your apartment allows plants on your balcony, take advantage of the rule. Fill it with your favorite plants with a focus on privacy. Use trellises to make ivy screens. Place a planter on the balcony floor to grow a wall of bamboo. Hanging baskets can also obscure sight through your balcony or patio without sacrificing too much of the view.

If you’re in a house, but unable to make any permanent changes, use potted plants. Some of the many advantages of potted privacy plants include:

• Mobility to adjust the layout of your yard.
• No digging or long-term maintenance.
• Unlimited design options. You can use different-sized pots and containers to create your ideal privacy feature.

Even the smallest of homes can use plants for privacy. Indoor herb gardens on a windowsill are a simple barrier between the outside world and your inner sanctum. Indoor planters can also accept many privacy-oriented plants, including bamboo and ivy. 

No matter where you live, plants are there for your privacy needs.

Final Thoughts

Fences can be ugly and uninviting. We all love our privacy, but we don’t want to come across as grumpy or withdrawn. Privacy plant fences ensure that a spark of life exists even with your security features. Indeed, with the versatility of plants, almost all your privacy concerns have plant-based solutions.